Weekend update

The weekend started early on Friday with a picnic. The students were sadly underrepresented in the pie eating contest, so I selflessly volunteered to participate. Consuming nearly half of a pie (most of which entered through my nose, how very dainty!) was enough to earn me third place. According to the certificate I received, “I don’t rule, but I’m good.” I’m not really sure how it happened, but I must have invited everyone back to the house for a game of poker because that’s where we all ended up. There are plans to start a semi-regular game, but since some of the group had never played before, we played with pretzels and Starbursts this time. Interestingly, the conversions from pretzels to Starbursts seem to be beyond the math skills of a bunch of scientists, and alarmingly, the conversion rate for each flavor of Starburst is not related to the goodness of the flavor. I was a little annoyed when everyone decided to bail around 1 AM without finishing the game because I had just begun to make my move. I ended up in third place (again), but I maintain that if they’d all finished the game, I’d have won. On the other hand, it was probably best that everyone get out so that I could get a couple of hours of sleep before jellytime and then touch tank on Saturday. E and I had to take the tank to Vienna for their tricentennial celebration. Neither of us had ever driven the trailer before, so we were ready for an adventure. Aside from the general lack of organization at the event, things went smoothly with only one near accident with the tank (I wasn’t driving). A downpour around 1 PM allowed us to leave early. I got home just in time to go to the brand new Denny’s in town then to a movie with J, C, and temporary roommate M. Sunday, I did nearly nothing, but I did manage to move the tadpoles to their new home. One of them grew his front legs over night and crawled out of the water as soon as I gave him something to crawl on. As of this morning he’s still crawling around on a rock but won’t venture all the way out of the water. I’m a little worried about feeding him, since the smallest cricket I can buy around here is bigger than he is. I’m ordering a fruit fly starter kit, but it takes two weeks to start. For now he’s still nibbling on the spinach leaves, and if necessary, I can dig up my trusty butterfly net and go hunting for him. I’m adding Popeye, Olive Oil, and Sweet Pea to the list of possible names. That’s all for now…off to think about actually working.